Beamdog Entertainment is a team of ex-Bioware and Black Isle developers who specialize on taking classic Infinity Engine RPGs and updating them for modern devices, like the Mac or iPad. First, they did it for Baldur’s Gate and Baldur’s Gate II and now they are doing it with Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition, coming soon to a Mac or iPad near you.

First released back in the year 2000, Icewind Dale was a snowbound RPG meant, at the time, to take the Infinity Engine and Dungeons and Dragons ruleset and apply it to a more Diablo like hack-and-slash game. As a fully-fleshed out game, it sits somewhere in between Baldur’s Gate and Baldur’s Gate II: it’s a satisfying game to pick up and hack-and-slash your way through some goblins, but less plot-heavy than many D&D RPGs.

In addition to bringing the game to Mac and iPad (and, in a first, iPhone!), here’s what’s new in Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition.

Swords and Sorcery: Discover dozens of new spells and items, including new magic armor and weapons.

Blackguards and Wizard Slayers: Select from over 30 new kits and classes to create the perfect adventuring party.

See The Unseen: Explore quest content cut from the original game, now finished and restored.

More to Experience: Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition includes both the Heart of Winter and Trials of the Luremaster expansion packs.

I’ve always loved the Infinity Engine games, and Icewind Dale is still a fantastic game, although I’m more intrigued by the possibility that we’ll see Icewind Dale II come to iOS and Mac. One concern I do have, though, is how this will control on the iPad. I never found combat very satisfying in Beamdog’s iPad ports — it’s a limitation of the engine, which requires a lot of pausing — and Icewind Dale is all combat. This might be a game better played on the Mac.

About the author

John Brownlee is a Contributing Editor. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.

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